I was speaking with someone, who is extremely busy (and making fairly good money) through ODesk. This person said that he does not use a contract at all and if he were to engage an independent contractor, who presented him with a contract, he would not even attempt to read it and move on to look for someone else. This caused me to think of my own Independent Contractor Agreement. I stand firm, with everything that has been posted here, that an agreement is essential; but, I would like to know: how many clauses do you have in your contract/agreement?

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Collaborative Business Support

Peppy,

First off if I had a potential client who refused to sign a contract they would not get to the client state. This would make me pause to think about the type of business protocols that they have in place. Funny that he would say that about contracts because he has to agree to something through ODesk.

As for my contract, I have 13 clauses ranging from Services and General Terms to Confidentiality and Applicable Law. Many of the clauses are just a few sentences of "standard language" however I have myself covered on all grounds.

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Lee Drozak
My Office Assistant

I agree with Lee - no contract, no client. My contract has 8 clauses in it also ranging from Services and General Terms to Confidentiality and Applicable Law. I believe there are some contract examples in the documents section on VAF.

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Lily Chambers, The Virtual Office Goddess, LLC
Author "How to Do Your Own Small Business Bookkeeping"

Originally Posted by leedrozak

Peppy, First off if I had a potential client who refused to sign a contract they would not get to the client state. This would make me pause to think about the type of business protocols that they have in place. Funny that he would say that about contracts because he has to agree to something through ODesk. As for my contract, I have 13 clauses ranging from Services and General Terms to Confidentiality and Applicable Law. Many of the clauses are just a few sentences of "standard language" however I have myself covered on all grounds.

That's my opinion, as well. I worked many years in the legal field and, if there's anything that I learned, it's "if it's not in writing, it doesn't exist." I also worked for some years in government contracts, so, I stand firm in my conviction about having an airtight agreement/contract.

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Collaborative Business Support

Thank you for your posts! Contracts/Agreements are such an integral part of business best practices that it's difficult to understand how anyone would not expect one not to be used to secure a business relationship.

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Collaborative Business Support

I definitely use contracts/agreements for my work. My first job was to build a website for a local (no contract was used at that time). Thank goodness all went rather well and there were no problems. I have learned though that contracts are essential.

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Terri Williams, Assisting the small business owner
www.terripwilliams.com